We don’t like to criticise other music industry sites. Partly because we’re British and polite, and partly because, well, thin ice etc. Our confident prediction in 2007 that Apple was preparing to launch a Yellow Submarine iPod with The Beatles remains unfulfilled.
A recent series of posts on Digital Music News feel like they deserve a response though. Not in an aggressive way to ding a rival, but as a contribution to the debate, and a suggestion that maybe it’s missing the real story.
Here are the posts:
Why Is Daft Punk Streaming on iTunes, But Not Spotify?
Vampire Weekend, a Spotify Holdout, Scores a Number One Album…
Queens of the Stone Age, a Spotify Holdout, Scores a Number One Album…
In each case, the line of argument is broadly the same: the artist’s album has been made available on Apple’s iTunes to stream a week before its official release date, making them “Spotify holdouts”.
“Spotify says there’s absolutely no evidence that streaming lowers download sales. Then why are some of the biggest artists in the world still withholding their latest releases from Spotify and other streaming services, right now?” asked the Daft Punk story.
“Even though Spotify insists that streaming has no negative impact on download sales, it’s really hard to prove that. And, in the case of Vampire Weekend, it’s really hard to argue with success,” suggested the Vampire Weekend story.
“This is now the third major artist to withhold a release from Spotify while giving preferential access to iTunes. And, the third major artist in a row to score a number one album release,” noted the QOTSA story.
The problem here is that none of these artists are Spotify holdouts. All three new albums can be streamed on Spotify and its rivals. We whipped up a playlist (right) to show it.
These albums aren’t holdouts in the sense that the last albums from Taylor Swift and Coldplay didn’t appear on streaming services for months after they went on sale, as part of a deliberate windowing strategy.
Nor are they holdouts in the sense of the Black Keys’ last album ‘El Camino’, which has yet to appear on Spotify two years after its release – with the band strongly criticising the streaming model in public interviews. And it’s not like AC/DC, The Beatles and Led Zeppelin, whose catalogues have yet to be licensed for streaming.
So what happened with the Daft Punk, Vampire Weekend and Queens of the Stone Age albums? They were exclusive pre-release streams on iTunes: available for up to a week to stream in full before they went on sale as CDs and downloads, and appeared on streaming services (note: Vampire Weekend’s LP took two weeks to appear as a stream).
If not being available as a pre-release stream counts as a holdout, then these albums were Rdio, Deezer and Rhapsody holdouts. Also Amazon and 7digital holdouts, and HMV, Tesco and WalMart holdouts.
They withheld the album from everyone except iTunes for that week.
Focusing the debate on Spotify risks appearing like a grudge against that particular company – something Digital Music News has tackled head-on before. “What you think is hate, is actually my decision not to be a cheerleader for this company,” wrote editor Paul Resnikoff in a response to a commenter on the site.
“Instead, I’ve taken a very critical look at this company’s financials, their very questionable artist payout structures, their incredibly opaque and non-transparent accounting structures, and the potentially very perverse interests of the major stakeholders involved… So, hate? If that’s the opposite of blind, rah-rah cheerleading, then I’m guilty as charged. Otherwise, I’m delivering tough coverage that my readers want.”
Without adopting a rah-rah cheerleading position, what’s frustrating about the ‘[Artist X], a Spotify holdout, is successful’ format is that it’s only partly addressing the more interesting story here, which is how labels are deciding where to make pre-release streams of new albums available to fans.
Apple is ramping up noticeably in this area, as those Daft Punk, Vampire Weekend and Queens of the Stone Age deals show (as well as David Bowie, Justin Timberlake and others before them). Amazon is starting to do it too – with Sigur Ros’ new album in the US, for example.
Media outlets are also on the pre-release bandwagon: Pitchfork, The Guardian, NPR and others. Spotify and its streaming rivals aren’t averse to a pre-release stream either, and you’ve also got Pandora’s recently-launched Pandora Premieres streaming radio station, which focuses on pre-release albums.
Some artists do it themselves on their own websites or bespoke sites created to promote a particular album. The XX’s innovative start-with-one-fan campaign was a great example last year, and we like Sigur Ros’ new site that’s encouraging fans to stream the new album AND give feedback. The fact that this sits alongside the Amazon promotion shows that pre-release streams aren’t always exclusive.
The story here isn’t about labels and artists holding out on Spotify. It’s about the pre-release stream being an established – even essential – part of album marketing campaigns, and about there being greater choice for labels than ever about how to do it, and with which partners.
Apple has huge clout here: it can tie pre-releases to pre-orders of albums on iTunes as downloads. Digital Music News is right to point to the chart success of Daft Punk, Vampire Weekend and QOTSA in this regard: iTunes pre-release + pre-order button is currently looking like a powerful combination.
Yet – and this is a really big point – a combination that seems to be complemented by day-one availability of albums on the streaming service, not cannibalised by it.
There are some chewy issues to think about here. Labels would be foolish to turn down a prominent iTunes pre-release stream, but are they also worried that if they hand a pre-release exclusive to Spotify or another rival service, Apple will punish them in terms of iTunes promotion post-release?
Has Apple encouraged that in any way? And what might the impact be of its iTunes Radio service later this year, which is promising its own pre-release exclusives on big albums? There’s plenty for journalists to dig into, even if people are often unwilling to talk on the record (yes, we’ve tried).
But we’re talking pre-releases, not holdouts, which in turn enables us to treat real holdouts separately, examining the strategy behind the Taylor Swift and Coldplay albums’ several-month windows, exploring the criticism of the streaming model by artists like the Black Keys, and pondering what might convince the Beatles and AC/DC to license their catalogues for streaming.
Pre-release streams and genuine holdouts are two separate issues, in short, and pointing out that difference doesn’t make you a cheerleader for Spotify and its kin.
If anything, the less sensationalist you are when covering the distribution and marketing strategies around big albums in the modern music industry, the more rigorously you can scrutinise the business models of the streaming services, and what their growth means for artists and rightsholders.
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“…but are they also worried that if they hand a pre-release exclusive to Spotify or another rival service, Apple will punish them in terms of iTunes promotion post-release?”
When our label did an advance album release in the US through Spotify (Nov 2011), Apple did not mince words in letting our distributor know they would not “support” our release as a result of the Spotify exclusive. What they meant by this is we would receive no preferred placements on any of iTunes feature pages, which we would have certainly received otherwise based on sales history.
At the time, iTunes offered no platform for us to do a full-length advance stream, but if they had, I’m not sure it would have changed our strategy. Our album needed virality and Spotify was (and still is) better positioned to achieve this because of their social integration.
See also: http://evolver.fm/2013/06/12/patient-zero-the-battle-for-music-exclusives-heats-up/
It seems like there are five separate types of releases at play here:
1. Pre-release streams on iTunes for one week prior to an album being simultaneously released for download on iTunes (and elsewhere) and on streaming services, i.e. QOTSA
2. Pre-release streams on iTunes for one week prior to an album being released for download on iTunes (and elsewhere) before appearing on streaming services, typically one or two weeks later, i.e. Vampire Weekend, The National
3. Streaming holdhouts for a longer period of time after an album is released that eventually, typically months later, appear on streaming services, i.e. Taylor Swift
4. Streaming holdouts of new content with no end to holdout in sight, i.e. The Black Keys “El Camino”
5. Streaming holdhouts of entire catalogs, i.e. AC/DC, Bob Seger
I may just be stating the obvious and repeating what’s above, but a pre-release stream on iTunes (or any other platform or website) is not in and of itself a holdout of anything. It only becomes a holdout if on its download/physical release date its not made available to (all) streaming platforms. Just because one platform is chosen to host a pre-release stream, it does not mean the record is a holdout.
Indeed, a record cannot possibly be considered a holdout prior to officially being released. The QOTSA album was not a streaming holdout, it was available for streaming the same day it was for download/physical purchase. Claiming it was a streaming holdout (because a pre-release was available) is like saying Kayne West is a streaming holdout for not putting “Yeezus” on Spotify this week before it’s officially released next Tuesday, which is absurd.
A pre-release stream is a preview of the album before it’s made available for either download or streaming, or both. If a record is available for download the same day it appears on a streaming service, it is not a streaming holdout, regardless if there was an iTunes pre-release stream. If a record is available for download but held back from streaming services for a temporary period of time, it is a temporary streaming holdout, regardless if there was an iTunes pre-release stream.
Thank you for this post, the issue is important to discuss.
We also have the case of J. Cole’s “Born Sinner” which was made available for streaming exclusively on Spotify before being officially released tomorrow.
Would Digital Music News consider this an iTunes holdout?